“She is,” I said. “She is the most wonderful child on earth. She is also wonderfully-active, and I have a deadline approaching for my next book, which is why you’re here.”
“I see,” she said. I noticed her looking around the room. Her eyes quickly went over the rustic wood paneling and expensive artwork by artists with names I couldn’t pronounce. Bethany bought them because she thought they were cool. If push came to shove, they would be the first things I put up for auction to raise money. I hated the damn things.
“I don’t see any pictures of your daughter,” she said, letting her eyes settle on me with a frown.
I looked around the room. She was right. There was not a single framed picture of my daughter. In fact, there were no personal photos at all. None in the den, none in my office, and none in my bedroom.
There had once been lots of pictures of Bethany and me at various stages of our relationship. I had thrown them in the trash long ago, expensive frames and all.
“Um, that’s odd,” I said, pretending not to have noticed before. “I guess the cleaning lady took them out to be dusted.”
I realized how stupid that sounded the minute I said it.
So did Amy Lynne, but she didn’t say anything.
What kind of shitty father didn’t have photos of his baby daughter all over the house?
A shitty father like me, that was who.
She said, “So, Gail mentioned that this would be full time, with room and board?”
I cleared my throat and gave her a nod. “Yes. It would be best if you moved in here. You’d have your own bedroom suite with a walk-in closet and private bath. And you’d have full run of the house. You would just help yourself to anything you wanted to eat or drink. Think of it as your home. The only rule I have is no alcohol in the house of any kind. Ever.”
“Oh, I don’t drink,” she said with a smile. “And I don’t eat much. Unless it’s chocolate. I could eat my weight in chocolate.”
She smiled, and it made me feel all warm inside.
What a wonderfully odd feeling.
“Chocolate is my and Lizzie’s weakness, too,” I said. “I guess we’ll have to make sure we keep the candy drawer well-stocked, if you take the job.”
CHAPTER SEVEN: Amy Lynne
Once I shook the case of nerves I’d dragged inside with me, I found Jackson Ritter to be cordial and charming (those were words that didn’t apply to many of the men I knew).
And I liked him immediately.
I couldn’t tell you why, exactly. I just did.
He was certainly the best-looking man I’d ever seen in person, and I had a hard time concentrating when he locked his baby blues onto my dull browns.
There was just something about him that made me want to give him a hug and tell him everything would be okay. And I wouldn’t have minded in the least if he had hugged me back.
I felt my insides tingle a bit when he smiled at me.
A little of me melted and pooled in my panties.
It was almost like we were two lost souls, brought together by an angel named Gail. Maybe she thought that together, he and I could find the healing we needed to pick ourselves up and carry on with our lives.
I didn’t think she was matchmaking, God forbid.
Gail had the gift of healing. Maybe she thought Jackson and I might help heal one another through his daughter, Lizzie.
“So,” he said, clapping his hands together, “what do you think?”
“Um, well, it all sounds great actually,” I said. The nerves started biting at me again. “So, I would move in here and would I have a set schedule or…”
“Oh, yeah, duh,” he said, playfully rolling his eyes. “I think we can just play it by ear as we figure it out, if that’s okay with you. I’m very flexible. I like to get Lizzie up and have breakfast with her every morning. Then I prefer to write between nine in the morning and three or four in the afternoon. I take a break somewhere in there for lunch, which I’m more than capable of fixing myself.”
In the old days, I drank my lunch at my desk.
“So, you’d need to look after Lizzie during that time. If you could also run a few errands during the day and handle grocery shopping, that would be great. I have a minivan in the garage I’ve never even driven that you’re welcome to use anytime you like. The keys are around here somewhere. I’ll find them for you. Then we can all have dinner together around five and I’ll take over from there. That way you can continue your online classes at night, and of course your weekends would be free.”
“Wow, that sounds…great,” I said. “And I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but what would the pay be?”
He snorted a laugh and shook his head again. “Boy, I’m lousy at this. I was thinking five hundred dollars a week to start, plus the free room and board. If you don’t think that’s enough, I’m certainly open to negotiation.”